A refrigeration apparatus having a cooling chamber, a receptacle, a receptacle cover, and slideways having forward and rearward portions for receiving the cover, said slideways being of a configuration for floating the cover within the slideways and maintaining the cover within said slideways....http://www.google.es/patents/US3874552?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatente US3874552 - Refrigerator apparatus

A refrigeration apparatus having a cooling chamber, a receptacle, a receptacle cover, and slideways having forward and rearward portions for receiving the cover, said slideways being of a configuration for floating the cover within the slideways and maintaining the cover within said slideways.

REFRIGERATOR APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is desirable to cover a vegetable pan ofa household refrigerator in order to reduce the loss of moisture from vegetables stored therein. It is also preferred that the vegetable pan cover be easily installed and removed and be free of flexible portions, such as shown in Falek- U.S. Pat. No. 2,763,526, which may be damaged after repeated flectures at cold temperatures. It is further preferred that the cover by movable for providing easy installation of the vegetable pan and effectively covering the installed pan.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention resides in a refrigeration apparatus having a cooling chamber, a receptacle, a receptacle cover, and slideways having forward and rearward portions for receiving the cover, said slideways being of a configuration for floating the cover within the slideways and maintaining the cover within said slideways.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a partially sectioned diagrammatic side view of the apparatus of this invention with the vegetable pan installed and covered.

FIG. 2 is a partially sectioned diagrammatic side view of the apparatus with the vegetable pan removed.

FIG. 3 is a partially sectioned diagrammatic side view of the apparatus with the cover moved to a position for removal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, a refrigeration device, such as a household refrigerator 10, has a.cooling chamber 12, walls 14, a receptacle 16, and slideways 18, extending along opposed sides of said cooling chamber 12.

The receptacle 16 has an upper end 22 and a flange 24 extending outwardly from said upper end 22. Preferably, the flange 24 is continuous and encompasses the chamber (not shown) of the receptacles 16 for acquiring an improved seal of a cover 26 on the flange 24.

The slideways 18, 20 can be connected to the cooling chamber walls 14 by fastening means 28, as further seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, and extend along opposed sides of said cooling chamber 12 for receiving the receptacle flange 24 and cover 26 preferably in the channel 30 of each of said slideways 18, 20, said channel preferably being defined by upper and lower runs 43, 44.

Each of the slideways 18, 20 have forward and rearward portions 32, 34. The forward portion 32 of each slideway 18, 20 is positioned generally horizontally within the cooling chamber 12 and the rearward portion 34 of each slideway 18, 20 extends downwardly and rearwardly from its respective forward portion 32. The receptacle cover 26 has forward and rearward portions 36, 38. To facilitate movement ofthe cover 26 to desired positions, the rearward portion 38 of the cover 26 is preferably of a greater length than the forward portion 36 and a rearward portion 34 of the slideways 18, 20 is a greater length than the forward portion 32. For illustrative purposes, the juncture of the forward and rearward portions of the slideway 18 and cover 26 are indicated in FIG. 2 by the letter J.

The receptacle cover 26 is movable within the channels 30 of the slideways 18, 20 between first and second positions in response to contact with the receptacle l6.

Referring to FIG. 2, the receptacle 16 has been moved along the slideways 18, 20 to a position at which the receptacle 16 is removed or at least to a position at which the receptacle flange 24 is contacting only the forward portion 32 of the slideways 18, 20 (not shown). Movement of the receptacle 16 to these positions causes the cover 26 to move by gravity to its first position at which the rearward portion 38 of the cover 26 is supported by the rearward portion 34 of the slideways 18, 20 and the forward portion 36 of the cover 26 is spaced from said forward portion 32 of the slideways 18, 20.

Referring to FIG. 1, the receptaclel6 has been installed and moved to its normal position. Movement of the receptacle 16 along the slideways 18, 20 to said normal position causes the cover 26 to move from the first to the second position at which the cover 26 is supported by the receptacle flange 24 and is spaced vertically from the slideways 18, 20 by the intervening flange 24.

At the second position of the cover 26, said cover 26 is contacting and being supported by the flange and sealing the chamber of the receptacle 16.

It is preferred that the apparatus of this invention provide a tray 40 upon which items can be stored in the cooling chamber 12. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the slideways 18, 20 are connected and extend downwardly from opposed sides of the tray 40.

Stop means 42, for example a skirt or flange, preferably extends downwardly from a forward edge of the tray 40 to assure against undesirable removal of the cover 26 during removal of the receptacle 16. It should be understood, however, that the apparatus can func tion properly without the stop means 42. Further, the stop means 42 can be connected directly to the slideways 18, 20 where a tray 40 is not provided.

Where a stop means 42 is utilized, the cover 26 can be moved by hand to a third position, as shown in FIG.

3, at which the rearward portion 38 of the cover 26 is at a higher elevation than the forward portion 36 of the. cover 26. The cover 26 in the third position can then be slid forwardly along the slideways 18, 20 past the stop means 42 for cleaning said cover 26, for example.

Where a preferred removable cover 26 is provided,

the stop means 42 should be of dimensions sufficient for intersecting the longitudinal axis of the cover 26 at the first and second positions of the cover and be spaced from the longitudinal axis of the cover at the third position of the cover 26. One skilled in the art can easily determine the dimensions of the stop means 42 after the dimensions of the cover 26 and channels of the slideways 18, 20 have been selected.

In order to assure obtaining an improved seal between the receptacle 16 and the cover 26, it is preferred that the cover 26 be formed of glass of desirable rigidity, will not detrimentally warp under prolonged use at the cold conditions of the refrigerator, and will provide sufficient weight to obtain an improved seal. Example, preferred thicknesses of glass which can be used is a thickness greater than about .15 inches.

In the method of this invention, as the receptacle 16 is moved forwardly from its normal, inserted and covered position in the slideways 18, 20, as shown in FIG. 1, the cover moves from its second position to its first position as shown in FIG. 2. At the first position, the forward edge of the cover 26 is extending upwardly from the lower runs 44 of the slideways 18, 20 thereby providing ready access for insertion of the flange 24 into the slideways 18, 20 during replacement of the receptacle 16. As the receptacle 16 moves to the normal position during insertion thereof, as shown in FIG. 1, the cover 26 is contacted by the receptacle l6 and moved from the first to the second position at which the chamber of the receptacle is covered.

By exerting a force on the rearward portion 38 of the cover when the receptacle is removed, the cover 26 can be easily removed as heretofore described.

By so constructing the apparatus of this invention, a receptacle can be covered in response to positioning of the receptacle, the receptacle travels in a linear pathway along all portions of the channel of the slideway and the cover is not easily damaged by repeated and prolonged use.

While there has been shown and described a number of embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto and it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such modifications falling withinthe spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigeration apparatus, comprising:

a cooling chamber having walls;

a receptacle having an upper end and a flange extending outwardly from said upper end;

slideways connected to the cooling chamber walls and extending along opposed sides of said cooling chamber, said slideways each having forward and rearward portions with said rearward portion extending downwardly and rearwardly from said forward portion;

a receptacle cover having forward and rearward portions and being movably positioned within the slideways, said cover being movable in response to movement of the receptacle in the slideways between a first position at which the rearward portion of the cover is supported by the rearward portion of the slideways and the forward portion of the cover is spaced from forward portions of said slideway and a second position in which the cover is supported by the receptacle flange and is spaced from the slideways by the intervening flange.

2. A refrigeration receptacle, as set forth in claim 1, including a tray having the slideways depending from said tray.

3. A refrigeration apparatus, as set forth in claim 2, including stop means extending downwardly from a forward edge of the tray.

4. A refrigeration apparatus, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the cover is movable to a third position at which a rearward portion of the cover is at a higher elevation than the forward portion of said cover; and

including stop means intersecting the longitudinal axis of the cover at the first and second positions of said cover and being spaced from the longitudinal axis of the cover at the third position of the cover.

5. A refrigeration receptacle, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the rearward portions of the slideways are of greater length than the forward portions of said slide-